Muslim Extremists Strike at Christians on East African Isles

In Zanzibar, two church buildings razed; in Comoros, a Christian suffers disease, shunning.

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 13 (CDN) — Far from the world media’s gaze in remote islands off the eastern coast of Africa, church buildings are razed and Christians are ostracized and imprisoned for their faith – leaving one with a skin disease.

On Tanzania’s island of Zanzibar, in one week-long stretch last month Muslim extremists destroyed two church buildings, Christian leaders said. The extremists torched the building of the Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa in Mtufani Mwera, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from Zanzibar town, at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3, said Pastor Julius Makoho. Damages were estimated at 1.5 million Tanzania shillings (US$9,350).

“When I arrived at the scene of incident Sunday morning, I found that the church had been reduced to ashes, with bottles seen close by that could be petrol or paraffin that could have been used for the burning of the church building,” Pastor Makoho said.

As the assailants fled, said one church member who requested anonymity, “I heard them shouting, ‘We do not want a church in this area!’”

To date no arrests have been made.


Daniel Kwilembe, bishop of the 80-member church, said authorities on the predominantly Muslim archipelago tend to take no action in crimes against Christians. Bishop Fabian Obedi of the Pentecostal Evangelical Church of Zanzibar concurred.

“The Muslims are burning our church buildings quite frequently here in Zanzibar, but the government is not speaking against this kind of destruction of our church premises,” Bishop Obedi said.

The previous week in Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, a throng of Islamic extremists demolished Siloam Church’s building. Pastor Boniface Kaliabukama said that more than 100 Muslim extremists arrived at the church compound on Nov. 26 chanting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater].”

“The security guard got scared of the mob and fled for his life,” Pastor Kaliabukama said.

The assailants entered the church building with clubs, hammers, torches and swords, tearing it down in about three hours, the pastor said. The arrival of police did not stop them; they kept slamming the structure even as police tried to frighten them off by firing into the air, he said. Officers did manage to arrest group leader Mbarak Hamadi, 60.

“When the church assembly arrived at the church for church service, there was no shelter for them to worship in,” said Pastor Kaliabukama. Siloam Church has a congregation of about 200 members.

Bishop Obedi confirmed the attack, saying that a neighbor called him the night of the incident to tell him that he had heard a Muslim saying, “We are not comfortable with the existence of the Siloam Church – this church is growing very fast, and it is taking some of our Muslim brethren.”

Damages to the brick structure with its sheet-iron roof, completed in August 2011, were estimated at 25 million Tanzanian shillings (US$15,570).

“The government had permitted us to put up the church structure,” Pastor Kaliabukama said. “But these Muslims have no regard to the law. What will be the fate of my church members?”


Zanzibar Island’s population is estimated at 700,000. There are only 60 Christian congregations on the archipelago, according to Operation World. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

On July 30, Muslim extremists burned down a church building in Fuoni, on the south coast of Zanzibar island, that belonged to the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania. In Kianga, another church building was burned down on July 27, and on neighboring Pemba Island, suspected Muslims extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building.

Skin Disease
Further south, in Comoros – three tiny islands between Mozambique and Madagascar that declared independence from France in 1975 – a convert from Islam is suffering from a skin disease contracted in prison after his family threw him out.

The ordeal of Musta Kim began in March 2010 when, returning from an overnight prayer meeting, he found someone had broken into his house in Mdjwayezi village. What he thought would be a simple matter of reporting a burglary turned him into an outcast.

While looking for evidence in his home, police stumbled onto Christian materials – a Bible and film – which changed the course of inquiry from pursuing thieves to asking why Kim was practicing a forbidden faith.

The Muslim youth who broke into his home was suspicious that Kim had left Islam, Kim said. Police investigations following the March 4 ransacking lasted three months, and among the Christian materials officers found was the “Jesus Film,” a translation of the Gospel of Luke in the local Ngazidja language and a French Bible.

With the help of Kim’s family, police arrested him and severely beat him during interrogation, injuring his right eye, before throwing him into a jail cell, he said. He slept on a moist thin mattress in the filthy jail cell, leaving him with a skin disease that has affected his whole body. He also developed a serious infection on his navel, with secretion of pus, which required urgent attention.

Kim was rushed to the Roman Catholic Hospital in Mboeni, but his condition worsened, with his skin ailment resembling scabies. He began scratching himself continuously, leading to serious bleeding, and went sleepless nights in intense pain throughout his body, he said.

His health deteriorating, he made an appeal in the high court regarding his eight months of incarceration without trial, and he was released on Feb. 29, 2011.

His family, however, rejected him, and Kim did not know who to turn to for shelter, medicine and food, he said.

“I cannot sleep at night – the whole body is itching and hurting,” he said. “I need medical assistance – my family has deserted me.”

Hailing from Mdjwayezi village 20 kilometers from Moroni town, Kim is an active member of the underground church.

The Comorian constitution provides for freedom of religion, though it is routinely violated. Islam is the legal religion, and anyone found practicing another faith faces opposition. Evangelism is forbidden, and converts to Christianity can expect severe reprisals, according to Operation World, which states that the country is 98.84 percent Muslim and 0.93 percent Christian.

END

Women's climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro shouts for Freedom from trafficking

Tanzania (MNN) ― Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and to kick it off, a group of 46 women is climbing mountains to combat human trafficking--literally.

After training for weeks to be able to finish the feat, theOperation Mobilization group of women from around the world has chosen today to start a climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. As part of a campaign called The Freedom Climb, this group of women will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise awareness of human trafficking.

Lysa McMillan is one of the climbers. She says she and the other 45 ladies feel so passionate about putting an end to modern day slavery--which makes up the realities of over 27 million lives worldwide--that they feel called to shout out about it.

"Sometimes when you have a crisis that serious, you need to shout from the rooftops. You need to do something extreme in order to put attention on such a serious issue," says McMillan. "So that's where Kilimanjaro comes in. Kilimanjaro becomes that extreme measure of doing something kind of radical, kind of 'off the wall,' to say ‘We want to put light on a dark issue. We want to shout from the rooftops about an injustice that needs to end.'"

McMillan approaches that objective literally: "A lot of people don't realize, but Kilimanjaro is known as the roof of Africa."

The Freedom Climb has many facets. The women are not only raising awareness but also funds to combat oppression, slavery, exploitation, and global trafficking. Each woman raised $10,000 to go toward OM projects in Asia, Africa, South America and Europe that prevent trafficking or provide care for those who have been affected by it.

This climb is also symbolic of the challenging climb that victims face while climbing out of oppression and into freedom. All of the climbers are women, just as 80% of trafficked victims worldwide are women.

The summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro is called "Uhuru Peak." Uhuru is the Swahili word for "freedom" and reinforces the hope that women and children worldwide can be free from their oppression.

None of the 46 women in Tanzania today are professional climbers, but they are united in, and motivated by, the purpose of being a voice for the voiceless. Some of the climbers were victims of sex trafficking and other injustices.

The climbers are also passionate about the Gospel. Their funds will go to OM projects that share and proclaim the ultimate freedom in Jesus Christ.

To follow The Freedom Climb, visit www.thefreedomclimb.net and sign up for e-mail updates. You can learn more and support the climbers there.

Muslim Extremists Torch Churches in Zanzibar, Tanzania

Worship buildings burned on east African archipelago’s Zanzibar, Pemba islands.

By Simba Tian

 

 Charred remains of the Free Evangelical
 Pentecostal Church in Africa building.

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 1 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim extremists on Saturday (July 30) burned down a church building on Zanzibar island off the coast of Tanzania, church leaders said, just three days after another congregation’s facility on the island was reduced to ashes.

 

In Fuoni on the south coast of Zanzibar (known locally as Unguja), Islamic extremists torched the building of the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) at around 2 p.m., said Pastor Leonard Massasa, who oversees Zanzibar’s EAGT churches. The assailants were shouting, “Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children,” Pastor Massasa said.

 

The EAGT church is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Zanzibar town.

 

“Tomorrow is Sunday, and my members numbering 40 will not have any place to worship,” Pastor Paulo Magungu of the Fuoni EAGT church said. With fear in his voice, the pastor added, “We have reported the case to the police station. I hope justice will be done.”

 

He reported the case at Fuoni police station immediately after it happened, he said.

 

In Kianga, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Zanzibar town, another church building was burned down on Wednesday (July 27) at about 2 a.m., said Pastor George Frank Dunia of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa. The fire destroyed 45 chairs.

 

“I have 36 members, and it will be very difficult for them to congregate tomorrow,” the pastor said on Saturday (July 30). “The members are afraid, not knowing what other plans the Muslims are out to do. We request prayers at this trying moment.”

 

Church officials have reported the case to the chief of Kianga, as well as to police.

 

Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago is 99.9 percent Muslim.

 

Fire Islands

On neighboring Pemba island, suspected Muslim extremists in Konde on June 17 razed a Seventh-day Adventist Church building, a witness said.

 

“It was at 1 a.m. when I saw the church burning,” said a neighbor who requested anonymity. “There have been issues that the Muslims have been raising about the existence of the church.”

 

The Seventh-day church owns a large property near Chake-Chake town but has been unable to erect a building due to hostility from Muslims, sources said.

 

“If we do not stop the growth of the churches here in Pemba, then soon we are going to lose our people to Christianity, especially the children,” Sheikh Ibrahim Abdalla of Chake-Chake Mosque reportedly said.

 

The June 17 attack took place at about 1 a.m., the witness said. Konde is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Chake-Chake town.

 

A case has been filed in Konde police station, but at press time no suspects had been arrested.

 

Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) Pastor Yohana Ari Mfundo said he has witnessed a series of attacks on Christians on Pemba island.

 

“It is even becoming extremely difficult for Christians to exercise their faith like praying or singing in a Muslim-owned rental house,” Pastor Mfundo said.

 

The pastor had bought a half-acre of land for a church building some three kilometers (nearly two miles) from Chake-Chake town, but when area Muslims learned of it they arranged for a road to be built through it, he said. The smaller size made it fit only for residential use. The road passing through the land today makes it impossible to erect a church building, he said.

 

Pastor Mfundo then bought another site, close to the town center, on which to construct a church building in 2005. After making the necessary agreements and payments, he had placed boundary markers on the site when he received a court injunction against beginning construction, on the pretext that the area was waterlogged. When Compass recently visited the site, there were other structures that had been built on the land supposedly too wet for construction, and new buildings were being erected.

 

“It is not true that the area is waterlogged, but a calculated move to stop the church being set up in this location,” Pastor Mfundo said. “We are here in Pemba because God wants us to be. But Muslims always point a finger at us – especially at my house, and we have been receiving several threats. But great is our God who is always ready to protect us.”

 

He added that Muslims have openly vowed in their meetings not to make friendship with “infidels.”

 

Another church building on top of a hill about 20 meters from the site where Pastor Mfundo wanted to build is also facing government obstruction. A court case challenges the existence of the Redeemed Gospel Church, said Pastor Yohana Shigalile, on the basis that the site was intended to be a burial site. Compass found only three graves there.

 

The church had reached an agreement of 20 million Tanzania shillings (US$12,750) with the seller to purchase the land, but Muslims have offered 50 million schillings, the pastor said, and therefore the land is likely to be sold for the construction of a mosque.

 

Pastor Mfundo said this is one example of how difficult it is to buy land for churches in Pemba.

 

Pemba has a population of about 500,000, and Zanzibar island’s population is estimated at 700,000. There are only 60 Christian congregations on the archipelago, according toOperation World.

 

Zanzibar is the informal designation for the island of Unguja in the Indian Ocean. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf had settled in the region early in the 10th century after monsoon winds propelled them through the Gulf of Aden. The 1964 merger left island Muslims uneasy about Christianity, seeing it as a means by which mainland Tanzania might dominate them, and tensions have persisted.

 

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Muslims Seize Christian Burial Sites in Tanzania’s Archipelago

Authorities of predominantly Islamic Zanzibar island chain decline to act.

By Simba Tian

 

Rev. Canon Emmanuel John Masoud
 at the Zanzibar burial site

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, July 28 (Compass Direct News) – Influential Muslims on this East African island have begun building what appears to be a hotel on a 100-year-old burial site owned by an Anglican church, Christian leaders said.

 

Church leaders with ownership papers for the land told Compass they are disturbed that authorities have taken no action since they filed a police complaint in December about the seizure of the burial site three kilometers (nearly two miles) from Zanzibar city’s airport. Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago, including the largest island of Zanzibar (officially known as Unguja), is 99.9 percent Muslim.

 

“We see that the government is partisan and would not like to see the church grow in Zanzibar,” the Rev. Canon Emmanuel John Masoud told Compass. “The retired Chief Justice Augustino Ramadani, who is a member of the Anglican church, was appointed to be a link between the church and the government to facilitate the negotiation process, but it seems that nothing is bearing fruits. Hence the church is not supported in any way.”

 

Masoud led church members from nearby Mbueni to the site to offer prayers on Dec. 29, 2010, two days after the daughter of former Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume placed boundary markers and a metal storage container full of belongings on the land, indicating the take-over. Karume, who erected a fence on the property to indicate it was now included in his residential area, is the vice chairman of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi, a political party of which Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete is chairman.

 

After the prayers, the Christians removed the boundary markers, and church leaders reported the attempted seizure to the Mazizini police station, Masoud said. They also drew attention to the case to Second Vice-President Seif Ali Iddi. Church leaders said they were promised that the government would take steps to resolve the issue, and that the rights of the church were protected, but construction on the site that began at the beginning of the year continues after seven months, Masoud said.

 

“It has been even very difficult for us to visit the site, because it is always under police guard,” he said. “It is alleged that this upcoming building is intended to be a hotel or a swimming pool.”

 

The church had planned to continue using the two-acre site as a Christian burial ground or build a Christian school as a memorial to those buried there, collecting the bones and burying them in one place, he said.

 

“It is quite uncalled for to see the government using force to take away the church’s premises,” Masoud said. “Freedom of worship given in Chapter 3 of the constitution seems not to apply here in Zanzibar.”

 

The church will continue to raise its voice in spite of the hostile environment, he said.

 

“We are very concerned about the state of the church,” Masoud said. “It is being subjected to various hardships. I am losing faith in our government. There is open discrimination. They are not serious in obeying the constitution, which safeguards people’s rights as well as the established institutions, like churches.”

 

Seizure in Pemba

Near the city of Wete in Pemba, the archipelago’s second largest island, authorities refused to help Christians who also suffered the seizure of their land at the hands of Muslims, church leaders said.

 

Wete’s Anglican church purchased a burial site worth 1 million Tanzanian shillings (US$630) in 2007 in Finya village, about five kilometers (nearly three miles) from Wete, but in November 2010 the Rev. Stephen Aaron Kamwendo received word that an unnamed Muslim forestry worker had begun planting trees on the site as a boundary marker and claim of ownership.

 

The forestry worker had unofficial backing from the island government, which supports opposition to Christian activity, Kamwendo said. He told Compass that rumors were flying that the church – which had lost its property in Wete after local officials decided to build on it – was planning to relocate to the two-acre property in Finya, prompting the Muslims to plan the takeover.

 

Kamwendo, who has ownership papers for the land, reported the case to the authorities in Wete and was told that the unnamed forestry worker had been given permission to buy the site. Officials told him that if he would be patient, they would resolve the conflict.

 

The church leader has also brought the matter to the attention of the president of Zanzibar, he said, but to date no action has been taken.

 

“We are being cheated like some children,” Kamwendo said. “Our rights are not respected. We see no commitment from the government. We shall continue demanding our constitutional rights, which are provided by the 1984 constitution and revised in 1995, which gives freedom of expression and freedom to change one’s religion as a personal choice and to share one’s faith freely.”

 

He added that there are many cases in Pemba of Muslims deciding to sell their land to Christians, only to face opposition from family members who threaten to call down curses on them.

 

“It is sad that Christians are not represented as far as their religious rights are concerned,” Kamwenda said. “Instead, all religious issues in Zanzibar are channeled through a Muslim mufti. We feel that our rights will not be presented, because the church is not represented.”

 

His church was originally located in the central business area of Wete, near a police station, but city planners decided to build a road through the property in 1989. By 1993, the church was forced to relocate its worship site to the present burial site, where the buildings erected are cracking because the ground there is still loose and unstable, he said.

 

The relocation of the church worship site resulted in the loss of a burial place for its members, prompting the Finya purchase. Kamwenda said church leaders had no choice but to relocate to their burial place, as it is difficult to get government officials to grant land for church purposes, and Muslims refuse to rent property for churches or even sell land to Christians, he said. 

 

Pemba has a population of about 500,000, and Zanzibar island’s population is estimated at 700,000. There are only 60 Christian congregations on the archipelago, according toOperation World.

 

Zanzibar is the informal designation for the island of Unguja in the Indian Ocean. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf had settled in the region early in the 10th century after monsoon winds propelled them through the Gulf of Aden. The 1964 merger left island Muslims uneasy about Christianity, seeing it as a means by which mainland Tanzania might dominate them, and tensions have persisted.

 

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